Does anyone else NOT have triggers??

Or is it just me (and Linda)???

I mean ones that you are aware of...diet, behaviour, whatever???
I have NONE. After 20 years of watching and searching, none that I can find.
Started with hormones and still cant find anything else.

But then I wondered....I know some of you post about them.
But are there any others among us that just either dont know or don't seem to have any??

Thanks
Pen

I don't know that I have triggers. Have one everyday just the severity varies. The weather will bring out the worst. Not sure if it's a trigger or what exactly...

Well, I can rarely say for sure what started the latest migraine other than barometric changes. If it isn't the barometer, I have no freaking idea. Of course there are the few that get triggered by petrochemical fumes and perfumes, but those are rare. The vast majority I have no clue as to what causes them.

I gave up trying to figure that out years ago as it was a lesson in futility. I just know that I am going to get lots of migraine attacks.

Alli

I only have one "known" trigger...the rest are all a mystery. My only known one is smelling/ being around fresh cut grass. I'm really allergic to grass. Ugh.

I know what you all mean with trying to figure out triggers. I'll think something I ate triggered one but I'll eat it later and, no problem. I also have them daily, no matter what the weather, how much sleep, stress, physical activity, etc. And they are one-sided, textbook migraines. Pen, to answer a previous post, I was told my headaches were caused by my use of Fioricet with codeine. I went off it for over two months and just used Phenergen to stop the cycle of throwing up. I still had headaches everyday. So I take the Fioricet because I can bear the pain and don't care what the doctors say. I can function, not well, but I can function and that's what matters to me.

Everyone has triggers. That's just the way it works. A Migraine can't occur unless something triggers it. Identifying the triggers can be really difficult though.

For those who can't identify any triggers, have you ever had a spinal tap to check your cerbrospinal fluid pressure? When my Migraines were at their most frequent, I could identify triggers only about 50% of the time. That's one reason my doctor did a spinal tap. Sure enough, my opening pressure was high. Once that was controlled, my Migraines were cut in half, and I could identify triggers for those I still had.

Just a thought,
Teri

Teri,

Let me ask you this - did you respond to preventatives? I've had an M every single day since June 09 - intensity varies. Gone through I don't know how many preventatives - don't work or s/e were so horrible I couldn't stand them (not sure they would have worked anyway) and nothing has lessened the frequency or severity. The only thing that determines severity is low pressure fronts. The worst ones run when a low pressure front is moving through.

Becky

Becky,

Before the spinal tap, which led to diagnosis and treatment for pseudotumor cerebri, no, I wasn't responding to preventives. That's another reason my doctor suggested the spinal tap. After that, I started responding to preventives.

I wasn't having a Migraine every day, but I was having them five or six days a week.

Teri

HeelerLady wrote:Teri,

Let me ask you this - did you respond to preventatives? I've had an M every single day since June 09 - intensity varies. Gone through I don't know how many preventatives - don't work or s/e were so horrible I couldn't stand them (not sure they would have worked anyway) and nothing has lessened the frequency or severity. The only thing that determines severity is low pressure fronts. The worst ones run when a low pressure front is moving through.

Becky

Teri,

Thanks for the information. I don't know what the deal with me is. The neuro thinks it's something related to brain chemistry but he's had zero luck with his medications. I'm starting to think it's not chemical. Doesn't make sense that it's chemical when the only known thing that affects things are pressure. Ah well...have an appointment in a couple of weeks and going to have to change things anyway - my abortives don't work either...

Becky

In regards to what Teri said that everyone has triggers -- Why can't the problem be a matter of hormones or body chemistry of some kind and no outside triggers? Unless you consider those triggers. Nothing on the "outside" that I can control causes my migraines. Abortives work almost instantly 95% of the time. I get 2-3 every week. They started as once a month during my period and after menopause almost instantly to the day became 2-3 times a week. There is no way to control them because they just come no matter what I do like clockwork. Fortunately, abortives work. And when I get one, I know I am good for a couple of says before another one.

I do have triggers quite a few actually, nothing unusual though, just the common culprits, hunger fatigue, smells, heightened emotions, stress, chinese food, hormones, humidity, blah blah blah,

I can only say that I know what some of them WERE. Heaven knows now that they are daily.

estre004 wrote:In regards to what Teri said that everyone has triggers -- Why can't the problem be a matter of hormones or body chemistry of some kind and no outside triggers? Unless you consider those triggers. Nothing on the "outside" that I can control causes my migraines. Abortives work almost instantly 95% of the time. I get 2-3 every week. They started as once a month during my period and after menopause almost instantly to the day became 2-3 times a week. There is no way to control them because they just come no matter what I do like clockwork. Fortunately, abortives work. And when I get one, I know I am good for a couple of says before another one.

Linda you wrote it for me almost. I don't know about triggers in everyone, but there is nothing that we can find after 20 years that seem to cause mine. I do all the right or all the wrong things., makes no difference. Have had food tests, excluded just about everything from my diet one time or another. And still constantly told to avoid my triggers....so that would be my hormones then...hmm, hard to avoid. Like you Linda mine came once a month with the period. Then into peri menopause twice a month and gradually the definition eroded and I didn't know where I was. But a good GP confirmed for me that it all made sense and i really didn't need any other triggers.

I have wondered though of course, which is why I asked if I was unusual in this.
Perhaps am (or Linda and I are).

Sometimes I think the brain gets used to creating the pain, and it just keeps on doing it. No triggers necessary. It is just plain stuck being in "pain mode." A malfunctioning of the brain that can't be stopped. Just how I think about it.

Cheryl

yeah i have heard this b4 that the brain gets stuck in a pattern of constant pain, it likes or favours that way over the other,

why is it that ECT doesnt work for migraines, when my friend had postnatal depression really badly she ended up havin ECT and after 3,or 4 treatments she was like a different person, such a contrast to how she had been, i know there prob is a valid reason just a shame they cant find a way of re-wiring some of us.

I've also heard that the more migraines that go untreated the more you will have, so it is important to do whatever it takes to abort or prevent the pain to begin with.

That reminds me of something a neurologist once said to me - that when you're having a lot of migraines, all the bits (sorry for want of a better word!) in your brain are on red alert most of the time and it only takes the slightest trigger to set them off again.

Hormones, stress and travel were my main triggers for years now it's all a blur as the migraines are just about daily.

As I'm waking with them so often, I thought I'd totally relax myself before going to sleep last night. I spent ages massaging the back of my neck, shoulders etc, did lots of deep breathing, even rubbed massage oil into my feet . . . only for a migraine to start as my head touched the pillow . . . so that put the kibosh on that theory!

Liz

Sorry about that liz. I went through all that as well.
It is why I now feel that, as my husband says ,it is as if a switch is thrown.
They come on in an instant, no warning, no prodome that I notice, and NOTHING seems to stop them.
Not avoiding anything, sleeping different whatever. If it is coming it is coming.
Hopeless isnt it. if only we knew what occurs in the night (well its circadian rhythm stuff, but seems no one knows what)

I don't think I have anything that'll do it EVERY time. Mine usually seem to be an accumulation of things.

Spring weather is usually the worst time for me. (It was snowing here again today, so no need to worry just yet!)

Witsend - that is what they say anyway that it is an accumulation. I don't know if I buy that (every time anyway). Mine are consistently 2-3 a week no matter what I am doing and I have tried avoiding all of the common triggers to no avail. They just happen no matter what. Where do you live where you are still getting snow?

Thats what I was going to say....still snow???
One of our Migraine drs here uses the "Gate theory"
One gate open, no migraine, even if it is say a chocolate problem, but
Two gates open....hormones and chocolate.... migraine.

I think this is probably a valid point, but, I still havent noticed anything with myself.
The nearest I could get to a trigger was pre menopause when if pushed it around that time, and sent near a "smell* fumes I guess, or flickering lights in the supermarket, then it could exacerbate it.
However I have never had those things actually cause a migraine.
In fact to all intents and purposes "nothing" causes my migraines.
Yo could spend a year with me and not suss it.....

Becky,

Certainly, brain chemicals are involved, but the first thing that happens when we encounter a trigger is electrical -- that wave of neurons that starts firing. The chemical changes are part of the chain reaction that occurs after that. That doesn't mean that drugs that work on brain chemicals can't work. They can work for some of us. But that first electrical reaction to triggers is why the neuronal stabilizing drugs -- anticonvulsants -- are being prescribed more and more for Migraine prevention.

Teri

HeelerLady wrote:Teri,

Thanks for the information. I don't know what the deal with me is. The neuro thinks it's something related to brain chemistry but he's had zero luck with his medications. I'm starting to think it's not chemical. Doesn't make sense that it's chemical when the only known thing that affects things are pressure. Ah well...have an appointment in a couple of weeks and going to have to change things anyway - my abortives don't work either...

Becky

Hi there!

I didn't say that everyone has external triggers; just that everyone has triggers. Hormonal fluctuations are a huge trigger for many people. When I said there has to be a trigger to have a Migraine, I'm really sorry if I gave the impression that I meant they all had to be external triggers.

Teri

estre004 wrote:In regards to what Teri said that everyone has triggers -- Why can't the problem be a matter of hormones or body chemistry of some kind and no outside triggers? Unless you consider those triggers. Nothing on the "outside" that I can control causes my migraines. Abortives work almost instantly 95% of the time. I get 2-3 every week. They started as once a month during my period and after menopause almost instantly to the day became 2-3 times a week. There is no way to control them because they just come no matter what I do like clockwork. Fortunately, abortives work. And when I get one, I know I am good for a couple of says before another one.

Cheryl,

If we were talking about headaches, that would be one possible answer. That does happen. The pain receptors can be changed by pain or even by pain medications. But, in the case of Migraine, it's different. We're not just talking about pain or pain receptors. Pain isn't the first thing that happens in a Migraine. It's part of the chain reaction after the neurons are activated by a trigger.

Teri

Anna's Mom wrote:Sometimes I think the brain gets used to creating the pain, and it just keeps on doing it. No triggers necessary. It is just plain stuck being in "pain mode." A malfunctioning of the brain that can't be stopped. Just how I think about it.

Cheryl

Teri, thanks a lot for explaining that. So for the likes of Linda and myself, hormones really could be our only "triggers".
Now.....that sorted...what do we do about it?? Why do our hormones trigger migraine?

5 years past menopause why I am still not free of them....I do still get flushes palpitations....so sadly hormones still active.
When oh when will they give up, and...the big question....given I never had a migraine in my life before peri menopause....will they take the migraines with them??